EU bank president backs pro-Palestinian wife

Wim Duisenberg, president of the European Central Bank, has admitted for the first time that he supports "100 per cent" his wife's pro-Palestinian activities.

In a defiant letter to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Dutch foreign minister, Mr Duisenberg defended use of a Dutch diplomatic passport by his wife, Gretta, this week while leading a delegation to visit Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader.

He also denied that she meant to condone terror tactics when she expressed "understanding" for suicide bombers in a television interview and said "far more innocent Palestinian citizens" were being "murdered".

Mrs Duisenberg is head of a pro-Palestinian lobby group, Stop the Occupation, and until now her husband has remained aloof.

But her use of diplomatic documents prompted a rebuke from the Dutch Foreign Ministry. Mr de Hoop Scheffer told the Dutch media that her antics were becoming intolerable.